ARTICLES ABOUT JURY DUTY BY DATE - PAGE 3

Rachel Martin, a south suburban kindergarten teacher laid off in June, will never forget this week. Tuesday, she caught an early flight to Washington. She met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and appeared with him during his televised remarks from the Rose Garden, where he urged Congress to pass a measure including $10 billion to fund jobs in education. An idled teacher from West Virginia also was on hand. Martin then joined the woman for lunch and sightseeing as the House approved the measure.

As a nursing mother, Alisha Patel is eligible under state law to be excused from jury duty. But the new mom said her request to be excused from jury service was denied by the Lake County Jury Commission. Instead, the commission postponed it — and told her in writing it will not grant another extension. Patel, a Buffalo Grove attorney, said she still plans to be breastfeeding when she's scheduled to report in the fall, putting the court's response at odds with Illinois law. "I wonder how many other mothers they have done this to?"

Rod Blagojevich may have been the one on trial, but a 22-year-old would-be investment banker was the one put on the hot seat by U.S. District Judge James Zagel as jury selection commenced Thursday. The judge made it clear he had nothing but contempt for the flippant answers the man had supplied on a pretrial questionnaire to try to escape jury duty. Zagel first congratulated him on penning "the best questionnaire I read." The judge then launched an exquisite evisceration, noting that the undisclosed man had written "bad temper" when asked if he had a medical condition that could make it hard to serve on the jury.

Seems as if this one's been around forever, and yet "Twelve Angry Men" never saw a Broadway stage until 2004. That's not surprising. The play can seem beside the point when audiences can just as easily stay home and watch "Law & Order" reruns. But if you're one to measure a play by its vein-popping outbursts, "Twelve Angry Men" is your champ. Nothing less than the integrity of the American judicial system is on the line in this depiction of Eisenhower-era culture wars, and the current revival at the Raven embraces every polarizing stereotype for all its worth.

If Cook County had had its druthers, President Barack Obama would have shown up Monday for jury duty. But court officials were told several weeks ago the prospect was a no-go, a White House official said Sunday. The summons showed up at the president's home in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood. Obama, a 1991 graduate of Harvard Law School, president of its law review and later a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, would have been bound for the courthouse in suburban Bridgeview, had he not been otherwise occupied.

If Cook County had its druthers, President Obama would have shown up Monday for jury duty. But court officials were told several weeks ago the prospect was a no-go, a White House official said Sunday. The summons showed up at the president's home in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood. Obama would have been bound for the courthouse in suburban Bridgeview had he not been otherwise occupied. With his first State of the Union speech on tap for Wednesday evening, it's a busy week for the president -- though it's not strictly all business.

A Chicago man who persuaded a Minnesota judge to delay his sentencing in a drug case so he could vote in the presidential election didn't show up for his hearing this week. Javontez L. Ross, 24, whose last known address was an apartment in the 1300 block of Arthington Street, pleaded guilty Sept. 11 to a felony drug charge in the St. Paul area, according to authorities. But Ross' attorney asked Ramsey County District Judge Margaret Marrinan to delay sentencing so Ross could vote Nov. 4, said Paul Gustafson, a spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney's office.

8:31 p.m., WMAQ-Ch. 5 Liz (Tina Fey, left) flies to Chicago to get out of jury duty and on her return flight ends up sitting next to Oprah Winfrey. Liz jumps at the opportunity to share a few problems with the talk show host. Jenna and Tracy (Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan) start a wacky social experiment. Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) tests Jack's (Alec Baldwin) morality. ---------- Fresh news, reviews: Get the latest from the Watcher at chicagotribune.com/watcher